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Lovemore Zigara Midlands Correspondent
THE Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe (EMCOZ) has called for the revival of the Tripartite Negotiating Forum saying dialogue between the key social partners was key for economic stability and progress.

EMCOZ president Jack Murehwa told Business Chronicle his organisation fully supported the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) commissioner-general, Gershem Pasi’s proposal on slashing of salaries, which employers feel have contributed to uncompetitive product prices.

Pasi recently drew the ire of workers’ unions when he called on the government to slash salaries which he said were gobbling a huge chunk of revenue being collected.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mangudya has also advocated for a freeze in salary adjustments and called for downward price reviews to allow for industrial growth.

Murehwa bemoaned the stalling of dialogue between TNF partners — government, labour and business, which he said had made it difficult to map the way forward for the country.

“EMCOZ has maintained the view that maintaining social dialogue among the three social partners, that’s government, labour and business, is key in mapping the country’s future. Regrettably, for various reasons, dialogue among social partners has been stalled for a long time. The issues you ask about here, for example, would’ve been carrying a contextual texture today had dialogue been continuous,” said Murehwa.

“But because of the long hiatus, stakeholders like yourselves (media) are now talking about “revival” of the issues.”

A cross-section of commercial players has also expressed the same sentiments.

They say the absence of dialogue among the social partners has resulted in incoherent pronouncements among the partners, a development which has had a negative impact on the country’s economy.

The EMCOZ boss stressed the need to reduce the cost of labour by increasing operational efficiencies at the workplace.

He said the development would improve the competitiveness of local products against imports due to low production costs.

“EMCOZ shares the view that in many business instances, labour is overpriced and has become a significant contributor to uncompetitive product prices,” Murehwa argued.

“In principle, EMCOZ fully subscribes to the need to reduce the cost of labour by increasing operational efficiencies at the workplace. While cutting salaries could be one way to reduce the cost of labour, this will have to be done within the provisions of the law.”

Murehwa said it would be pragmatic to focus on relentlessly working on increasing production per labour unit.

He said that could include rightsizing the organisation whilst ensuring that employees at work are paid for a full day’s work.

Murehwa said the employers’ body would continue to push for labour market flexibility (LMF), a thorny issue that is being discussed in the negotiation processes towards labour law reforms by the three social partners.

Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa in his 2014 budget statement, said the government was reviewing the labour law to make it easier to hire employees and increase productivity.